


an anomaly of a coincidence

by frozensight



Series: a whole new world (literally) [16]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 05:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8273939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensight/pseuds/frozensight
Summary: Eddie expected some things to change when he moved in Central City, but he figured that the biggest change was going to be the scenery.
Boy was he wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: the one where you only see color once you meet your soulmate and it goes away when they die
> 
> notes: this was...definitely supposed to be more thallen based and then just turned into me being really upset about my son eddie
> 
> also the dialogue in certain scenes is lifted from the eps directly (thanks netflix), so credit for those bits goes to the show's writers. all i did was add emotions in word form. i also tagged it major char death and canonical char death cuz i wanted to make sure people knew what they were getting into.
> 
> p.s. i haven't seen any of flash s2 yet, so this is very much so based on just flash s1

Everyone is born seeing color, however as one grows older, the colors fade. Scientists say it's tied to hormones and puberty, which makes sense as most people stop seeing color when they're preteens and entering puberty. Eddie himself stopped seeing color when he was eleven. The year leading up to that moment had been full of the gradual dulling of everything around him--dark colors went first, whereas vibrant ones lasted up until those final few weeks.

Sometimes in his dreams, Eddie will see bright green trees and yellow sunflowers and a brilliant blue sky, but whenever he opens his eyes it's the same old shades of white, grey, and black.

Then he moves to Central City, and things begin to change.

///

It starts the day Eddie gets passively introduced to Barry Allen.

"That guy," Detective Joe West says as he points out a man with a messenger bag and disheveled hair, "is Barry Allen, one of our best CSIs, and who just happens to also be my foster son."

Eddie watches him for another moment, watching as Barry trips over seemingly nothing, and nearly falls in the middle of the lobby--fortunately a passing cop reaches out and grabs his arm, pulling him up straight again. Trying to a hide a grin, Eddie says, "He sure is in a hurry. He late for something?"

Joe snorts, raising his coffee mug to his lips. "That's the number one thing you should know about Barry, Thawne: he's _always_ late for something."

He laughs and continues meeting his new co-workers. It's not until his lunch break when he's out at a food truck that Eddie realizes the trees' leaves are a faint green.

///

At first he's not sure who his soulmate is supposed to be. He met so many people that first day, shook so many hands. It's impossible to narrow it down without confronting everyone in the department again and asking if maybe they've seen a shade of red or green or blue or _anything_ lately. He figures that, if someone else at the department started seeing color, they'll realize the only recent change has been him and will talk to him.

When three days pass and no one's approached Eddie about anything except reports and last night's sport game, he decides he's imagining things.

///

It's the night of the particle accelerator that Eddie realizes he's definitely _not_ imagining things.

He gets a call from Joe saying that someone stole his daughter's laptop, and if Eddie's not busy, would he mind seeing if he can help her out?

"No problem," Eddie says, currently free now that his date with the dancer was canceled, "Anything to h--"

Joe hangs up before he can finish, but Eddie doesn't let it bother him. He and Fred are on a lead Barry got them earlier that day. Plus, Joe wouldn't have called him if he didn't think Eddie could handle it.

Eddie parks near a chain link fenced in alley behind the main building, and sets in to wait, figuring he's bound to see something eventually. He's there for barely a couple minutes before he sees someone climbing the fence. Eddie's out of the patrol car and has a gun on the guy before he can even get both feet back on the ground.

"Freeze! Police!" Eddie commands, "Or do you want to find out the hard way you're not faster than a bullet?"

He quickly arrests the kid and puts him in the back of his patrol car, placing the laptop bag carefully in the passenger's seat as he gets on the radio and asks for a unit to find and pick up Joe's daughter and take her to the station.

Eddie has barely managed to begin booking the kid when Barry comes up to him with a woman at his side, who demands, "Where's my laptop?"

He blinks and points over to Joe's desk where he'd placed the laptop as he walked into the office. She immediately walks over and begins inspecting it. Meanwhile, Barry eyes Eddie with a considering look. "How did you know that was Iris and not some random lady?"

"She snaps at me the same way Joe does," Eddie replies, scratching the back of his neck, "Plus she came in with you, so I just kinda figured."

Barry laughs softly, like he's caught off guard by Eddie's deductions. He then shakes his head, and holds out a hand to Eddie. "Well, thank you, from Iris and me."

Eddie grabs his hand. "You're both very welcome."

Their hands separate, and Eddie can't help but think how Barry's shirt is a darker shade of red than Iris'. He looks down at his hand and has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes that there's a faint peach tone to his skin that hadn't been there earlier before. His eyes dart back up to where Barry is sitting in Joe's chair while Iris talks with another officer about what happened. He can see the brown of Barry's hair and the details of the flowers on Iris' jacket. Eddie's still floundering when another detective comes up behind him and claps him on the back, congratulating him on another arrest.

///

Everything's such a whirlwind after that night. Before he can so much as sneeze, Eddie finds himself assigned as Joe's partner, which leads him to visiting Barry in the hospital sometimes and covering shifts for Joe, and that, in turn, leads to him dating Iris.

Eddie's _pretty_ sure he's not Iris' soulmate. She hasn't mentioned anything to him about seeing colors, but then again, he hasn't mentioned anything to _her_ either. (Eddie's not really sure what the protocol is here.) He watches as she holds Barry's hand in the hospital room, and his stomach churns with grief for her and a little bit of grief for himself. Because part of him is still wondering if maybe Barry is actually his soulmate. The colors started before he met Iris, after all, and Barry, well he'd been there both times Eddie'd noticed the colors hadn't he? So he's still not sure _which_ of them is actually his soulmate, and wouldn't that be tragic if it is Barry and he never comes out of his coma--or worse _dies_ before he wakes up?

The colors get stronger and brighter the more Eddie hangs out with Iris--and subsequently Barry--and it continues to be very difficult to know who his real soulmate is. He likes Iris a lot--he's pretty sure he might love her, even--and from everything he's heard about Barry, he likes him a lot too. He knows for sure one of them is his soulmate--some voice in the back of his mind even wonders if both of them might be--but what he doesn't know if _he's_ either of _theirs_ , and that thought keeps him up at night more than anything.

///

By the time Barry does wake up, nine months later, Eddie and Iris have been dating for about six of that, and he's mostly convinced that Iris is his soulmate. Even better, he's fairly certain he might be hers too after all. Sometimes he catches her staring at her coffee or a tree in awe, like he knows he did back when it first started. He's read up a lot about how soulmates work in the past few months, and the most relieving thing he's read is that it can take some people longer to see the color after meeting their soulmate. Therefore, when he sees Barry again at the police station talking with Iris, he doesn't hesitate to throw the man a smile.

"Good to see you, Barry," he says, meaning it as he walks away. He's glad Iris has her best friend back, and he's eager to actually get to know Barry from the man himself rather than from the Wests and Barry's blog, which Eddie has taken to reading during breaks. It's interesting, if not slightly concerning.

He chalks his emotions up as faint worry when Barry catches him and Iris kissing outside Jitters. They hadn't told Joe about them yet--there's no easy way to let your partner know that you're dating their daughter--and while Eddie hadn't been against telling Barry about them, he'd been hoping they could break it to him together over lunch or something. Being discovered like that makes it seem like they're hiding something taboo.

Iris assures him that it's fine, Barry won't say anything to Joe and is okay with them dating.

Eddie, who sometimes catches Barry glancing at them with a bitterly wistful expression, can't help but feel his stomach clench in guilt all the same.

///

It's terribly awkward, those first few weeks after Iris and Eddie finally reveal to Joe that they're dating--he already knew, of course, but it's one thing to know and another to be told. Eddie keeps thinking that Joe's going to suddenly point his firearm at Eddie, demanding he leave his daughter alone.

"I wouldn't worry about it," says Barry after Eddie has finished unloading on him--he's only in the lab to get some results Barry promised, and somehow he ended up venting. He grins as he hands Eddie a file. "Joe's not one for subtly. You'll see the bullet coming from a mile away."

"Glad I have something to look forward to then, Bar," grumbles Eddie as he takes the file folder from Barry and walks out of the lab, Barry's laughter following him.

///

Things mostly proceed smoothly for the rest of the year until Christmas.

Eddie has always had his suspicions about Barry's real feelings for Iris, but they'd seemed harmless, especially since Barry willingly gave them his blessing. He doesn't feel like their relationship is threatened until he goes over to help decorate the tree, only to see Barry's strained face and the incredibly thoughtful gift around Iris' neck. (He hides away the idea that maybe he'd feel better if Barry had also gotten _him_ something thoughtful and romantic, but that's just the small part of Eddie that still thinks maybe Barry could be his soulmate.)

"Friends don't give friends wedding bands," says Eddie pointedly as he and Iris have coffee at Jitters later, holding his coffee cup up to his face to hide his frown.

"He wasn't--he wasn't _proposing_ to me, silly." Her voice tells Eddie that she thinks the very idea of Barry being interested in her is laughable, and Eddie would agree if he hadn't also seen the way Barry sometimes looks at her when she's not paying attention. "He and I are just best friends."

_For now_ , whispers a voice in Eddie's head, and he hates that his doubt about whether Iris is his soulmate is back. (Like it ever really left.) They still haven't talked about seeing colors, and Eddie wonders if maybe he's read her expressions all wrong these past few months and he's the only one experiencing it after all. He hopes, though, that what he's about to do will spark some kind of conversation about it, sooner rather than later.

"Well, then he won't be bothered by this." Eddie pulls out a small black box and puts it on the table between them. He sees the immediate wariness on Iris' face at the sight of it, and he can't stop himself from grinning as she slowly picks it up and opens it.

Her face as she registers the key is gratifying, but it's worth it all the more when she says, "I love you," and takes his hand.

It's the best Christmas present he's gotten in a long while.

///

A couple weeks later, while sitting in Eddie's apartment, he and Iris finally have the fated discussion about colors, and he's overjoyed to find that she really has been seeing them.

"Ever since Barry's accident, they've slowly been getting brighter," she says as their clasped hands rest on the couch cushion between them. "I wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but the way I feel isn't going away. I can't help how I feel about you."

Eddie grins, pulling their hands up to his mouth so he can kiss the back of hers. "I can't help how I feel about you either."

///

Some time after that, Eddie finds out that not only are metahumans a thing, but also that Barry is the infamous Red Streak--sorry, _the Flash_.

"Wh--I don't--I'm..." Too many things are going on in Eddie's head, and though he stood up when Barry first pushed back his cowl, he feels like maybe he should've stayed sitting now.

"It's a lot to take in, I know," says Joe, placing a hand on Eddie's shoulder.

_You have no idea_ , Eddie thinks, his eyes unable to break from Barry's.

"But it's necessary in order to protect Iris," adds Barry, taking another step forward. "She can't find out the truth of what happened to Mason. It'd put her in incredible danger."

Eddie drags his hands over his face, way too many thoughts flitting through his head as he mumbles, "Okay, so what's the plan?"

Joe and Barry glance at each other, and Eddie can already feel his stomach dropping before they respond, "Lie."

///

The lie about Mason that Eddie feeds to Iris settles heavy on his stomach, but he wishes that was the only thing he had to worry about. Instead, he has a million thoughts about his relationship with Iris, all of them tying in with the newfound fact that Barry is the Flash.

He can't help but wonder if maybe Iris' colors aren't because he and her finally met, but because Barry was put on the path to be the Flash. Meanwhile, Eddie's been seeing color long before he met Iris--since the day he first caught a glance of Barry, actually he realized weeks ago--and he can't help but feel trapped between how he feels about Iris and how he feels like maybe he's made the wrong choice somehow.

///

"So," Eddie casually begins one day, when it's just him and Barry in the CSI lab, waiting for the mass spec-a-whatever to finish spinning, "When did you stop seeing colors?"

Barry fumbles with a vial of some chemical, nearly dropping it before hurriedly placing it on the rack where it belongs. "Why do you ask?"

Eddie shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant. "Just curious."

Eying him suspiciously, Barry turns away and focuses on typing something up on a report. "Well, to be honest, I never...stopped."

_Oh_ , thinks Eddie as he forces himself to breathe slowly, _so **that's** what it feels like for your heart to stop beating for a moment_.

"Never, huh?"

Barry shrugs, careful to only look at Eddie via his reflection on the computer screen. "What can I say? I've known for years who my soulmate is."

Iris' name goes unspoken. Eddie smiles balefully and pats Barry on the back. "That's great, Bar. I, uh, just remembered an errand I have to run. Can you send the results down to my desk when it's ready?"

He's halfway out of the lab before Barry can so much as manage a, "Sure thing," in reply.

///

Eddie's suspected for a while now that Iris and Barry are soulmates and that he's just some of awkward third wheel, rolling along in denial.

It doesn't mean he wanted to hear confirmation that he's right, let alone from his apparently evil future descendant, who's currently holding him hostage. ( _Especially_ after he's gotten his grandmother's ring so he could to propose.)

_Iris West-Allen_ echoes through his head and he screws his eyes shut, not out of physical pain, but because even seeing color in this dingy mechanical room he's trapped in causes his heart to ache.

///

He's quiet as he sits on the medical table, hooked up to the IV drip, and merely listening as Caitlin checks him over. Eddie's distantly aware that Iris is by his side, worry etched all over her face, but he can't bring himself to look at her.

Then Barry runs in, out of breath, saying that Wells got away again.

"He was too fast. He's always too fast," he groans before he stands up, his eyes bulging a little when he sees Eddie on the other side of the room. He waves weakly at him, hating that he can't help but think in the back of his mind that the blue of Barry's sweater looks rather good on him.

"I'm so sorry," says Barry as he walks over to Eddie and Iris, "I thought I looked everywhere for you."

It isn't hard to believe that Barry is genuinely sorry, that Barry had, indeed, looked everywhere and feels bad for missing a place so obvious as right beneath their feet. It also isn't hard to miss the look that passes between Barry and Iris, signaling to Eddie that something happened while he was missing. Something that sounds a lot like destiny.

"It's not your fault. Sometimes you just can't see the clues, even if they're right in front of you." He allows his glance between Barry and Iris to speak for itself, the put-upon grin on his face emphasizing that all is not right with him, and it has mostly nothing to do with being dehydrated or held captive for about two weeks.

Eddie doesn't miss the look on Barry's face when Iris puts a hand on his knee, and he certainly can't ignore the way it gives him a petty sort of triumph, even if only for a second before he feels like throwing up.

///

He goes back to work the moment Iris leaves their--' _For how much longer_?' he wonders to himself--apartment. He needs to feel in control of _something_ \--something that doesn't have to deal with the Flash or metahumans or the future. Eddie's walking back to the precinct when Iris catches up with him.

"Eddie, I miss you. I love you." When he doesn't stop walking, she tugs on his arm and makes him. " _Hey_. I saw this when we found you. This was for me, wasn't it?" Iris holds out the sea-foam green box that holds his grandmother's ring. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. A part of him had hoped that when Eobard had thrown the box, he'd never see it again. "When you took me to the waterfront, and Dr. Wells abducted you, you were going to propose."

He pauses, meeting her eyes--her brown eyes that he'd always thought the world of and still does, no matter how much it hurt to think it.

"I was."

"But now you're not?" The heartbreak is evident in her face.

He doesn't answer. He can't.

"He showed me the future. We don't get married. You and Barry do," is the last thing he says to her before he walks away.

The leaves mock him with their green color. The orange car that whizzes by laughs at him.

For the first time, Eddie finds himself wishing he'd never gotten his colors back.

///

She catches up to him a few hours later inside the precinct.

"I believe that we choose our own destiny. I decide who I love, and I love _you_." Iris speaks so earnestly that Eddie begins to believe her, but all he can see is in his mind's eye, the byline of that godforsaken article. She grabs his arm and stops him from walking away again. "Whatever future Wells showed you, it's not my future. It's not _our_ future. Please, let me prove it."

He sighs, taking her hand. Eddie knows his expression is sad and resigned, but he can't help it. "This isn't about the future, Iris. It's about here, now, _today_. Ever since the very beginning, there's been three people in this relationship. You, me, and Barry."

Somehow, Eddie thinks, it's comforting to actually admit it out loud.

"That is not true."

The urge to laugh takes him by surprise. "You can deny it all you want, but Barry knows it, Joe knows it, and if I'm going to be completely honest with myself? I knew." He hates that he can feel tears trying to well up in his eyes, but these are things that Iris needs to hear and things that he needs to say. "I always knew."

He walks away, hating that she's crying and obviously hurting too. Her parting words, "Then it ends," trail after him, slowly growing distorted until it sounds like Eobard is whispering in his ear.

_West-Allen_.

///

"Well, everyone has a contribution to make. Perhaps you just haven't discovered yours yet."

Stein's words stop Eddie from leaving, his jacket hanging from his hand. He looks back at him, a self-deprecating smile on his face, "No, Dr. Wells made it pretty clear when he told me about the future: I don't matter. As far as history's concerned, I don't save the day, or get the girl."

He turns away, ready to leave again.

"And you _believed_ him?"

Eddie turns back.

"He had a newspaper from the year 2024."

Stein scoffs, "And I have a mug that says 'World's Best Boss'. I doubt my teaching assistant would testify to its authenticity." Eddie kind of shrugs, unsure what he's implying by that. Stein rolls his eyes and adds, "We're dealing with a lot of big scientific ideas today. But _you_ , Mr. Thawne, might be the most interesting thing here at S.T.A.R. Labs."

He can't help but laugh a little. " _Me_?"

"What are the odds that Dr. Wells would travel back in time and get stuck in the exact same city as his great-great-great-great-grandfather? Working in the _same_ profession, the same _building_. And that part of his plan to get home would mean that he'd have to preserve and protect your life. That makes you this rare thing that no scientist can plan for."

Caught up in the lecture mode Dr. Stein has fallen into, and the budding hope rising in Eddie's chest, he asks what is expected of him, "Which is?"

" _Coincidence_ ," Stein says grandly, "There is no science to coincidence. You, sir, are an anomaly. A wildcard, as it were. You are the only person in this whole story who gets to _choose_ his own future." Dr. Stein's hand on his shoulder grounds Eddie, and his thoughts are racing as he tries to figure out what being a wildcard--a decider of his own fate--means for him. The computer beeps, and Stein turns away, mumbling in an afterthought, "At least, that's my opinion."

Stein doesn't notice that Eddie actually leaves this time, but Eddie makes a note to himself to thank the doctor later for giving him this revelation.

///

Dr. Stein's words about coincidences bounce around Eddie's head as he picks up food from Mama Chow's and then heads over to the Picture News office to see Iris. He's nervous and anxious and more uncertain about having this conversation than he's been about anything in his life, but he has to do it.

Iris brought color to his life--whether it was just her, or her and Barry--and he likes to think he did the same to her.

"We've all been so focused on Barry's destiny, I forgot that I have one too. And it's you, Iris West."

She smiles, and he feels hope welling up in him again. Sure, maybe there's something between her and Barry that still needs to be addressed, but they can do that together. Eddie's not afraid anymore. He knows what he wants, and that's Iris.

"Every moment of my life has led to meeting you. Screw the future," he says, a smile on his lips as he holds her face in his hands.

"Screw the future," she repeats with a laugh, bright smile illuminating her face.

They kiss, and for the first time in weeks, Eddie feels like maybe everything is going to be okay.

///

"No such thing as a coincidence," he tells Joe after falling to the ground. Eddie knows he should feel the pain from his gunshot wound, but all he feels is a morbid sense of relief.

Distantly he's aware that Iris is there, telling him to hold on, but her words aren't clear at the moment, so he just grins and tells her, "He was wrong. Turns out I'm a hero after all."

She's crying and he wants to wipe the tears away, but he can't find the strength to lift a hand to do it. Iris brushes a hand across his cheek. "You are, Eddie. You're my hero."

His chest fills with warmth despite the blood seeping out of it, and he smiles. "That's all I ever wanted to be. Your hero."

The colors doesn't fade as his thoughts dim, and Eddie's grateful to see the brown of Iris' eyes one last time--to know that his sacrifice means that Barry will get to save the world.

As his world fades to black, he can't help but be glad that at least no one will lose their colors when he breathes his last. Iris and Barry can be together now without him in the picture, as they should be--as they would've been regardless.

It hurts, but despite that, Eddie dies with a smile on his face and color in his life.

///

"Y'know, things just don't seem as bright without him," comments Barry as he and Iris stand over Eddie's grave. There's no body buried in the casket, but it felt wrong to not do _something_.

Iris grabs his hand, and with the other brushes the top of the gravestone. She whispers back softly, "No, they don't."

They walk away in silence, hands intertwined. Both of them seeing the colors of the leaves and the grass and the sky around them, but neither of them realizing that everything is a shade duller now.


End file.
